It is known to utilize the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify RNA and DNA sequences present in small samples. The amplification procedure can be simultaneously performed on more than one sequence. The presence or absence of a specific sequence in the amplification product may be determined by oligonucleotide hybridization assays. See generally Mullis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195.
Virus etiology generally and retrovirus etiology in particular are complex. See Varmus, Retroviruses, Science 240:1427-1435 (1988). Known PCR techniques, as applied to rapidly diagnose or confirm potential retroviral positive patients, are of limited sensitivity, lack positive controls and may otherwise be unreliable. For example, persons who were seropositive but both virus culture-negative and PCR-negative are reported by Ou et al. Science 239:295-297 (1988). As a first explanation for this observation, Ou suggests that these persons may have contained an insufficient number of provirus copies to be directly detected by the PCR technique utilized.